Obama and his conservative critics in the media

Do you listen to conservative talk show hosts in America? I usually don’t. But once in a while, no matter how stupid, obscene and arrogant they sound, you simply can’t ignore them. They make news with their ludicrous discoveries and insulting, provocative and lop-sided comments. What endears them to their diehard audience is that they are also unapologetic with their many unfounded claims and accusations. Humility is not a word to be found in their dictionary!

Rush Limbaugh is one such talk show host who is much admired in the Republican side of the aisle in the Capitol Hill. Even former Vice President Cheney had no hesitation to pick him over retired four-star General Colin Powell as a grass-root Republican. One would have thought from last year’s massive Republican fallout with the American voters that days of Limbaugh’s brand of hard-core conservatism are over. But the fact that he still continues to amuse his conservative audience while bemusing his detractors with his radio program proves that his brand still resonates with the rank and file of the Republican Party.

In the absence of proven Republican leadership in the Congress, Rush is also trying to shepherd the defeated souls with issues which may look too ridiculous or non-issues to others but are sure to rally the conservative crowd. He is trying to resuscitate the almost moribund party.

Limbaugh’s recent discovery is that Obama is trying to lay a foundation for a third term to serve beyond 2016. Limbaugh told his national radio audience, "I wouldn’t be at all surprised if in the next number of years there is a move on the 22nd Amendment."

As pointed out by Rick Pedraza in a Newsmax report, Limbaugh has a point. After Obama was sworn in, Congressman Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation in the House to repeal the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, which limits presidents to two consecutive terms or 10 years in office. Serrano’s justification for the bill is that, until 1951, nothing prevented a president from serving more than two terms. Additionally, a Web site, End22.com, is dedicated to abolishing the 22nd Amendment. It appears that both the congressman and the website have points, too. There was nothing in the original Constitution of 1787 that barred a third or fourth term for presidents. But the question is: even if the 22nd Amendment is repealed will Obama seek the third term?

The "all-knowing expert" Limbaugh has his own doubts; although such doubts have not stopped him from making a big fuss on Obama’s third term (forget that Mr. Obama has not yet completed his first half of the first year in his office, let alone getting elected the second time). He said, "He may not openly try to change the Constitution. But there might be this movement in the country from his ‘cult-like’ followers to support the notion that a democratically-elected leader who is ‘loved’ and ‘adored’ has carte blanche once elected –” just serve as long as he wants because the people demand it, because the people want it, because the people love it."

To explain why Obama may run for the third term, Limbaugh said Obama has sympathy for dictators. He inherited that mindset, or should we say, gene, from his Kenyan father who arguably was a Marxist, explains Limbaugh. So Rush’s logic dictates, Obama must be a communist, too, if not, a communist sympathizer! All the commies are dictators when they grab the state power. That explains, why Obama is with "the bad guys on the world stage," namely Hugo Chavez of Venezuela (who likened the former President Bush to the devil in his speech at the UN General Assembly in September of 2006) and Manuel Zelaya of Honduras! [1] Otherwise, why would the Obama Administration condemn the coup in Honduras that recently unseated the democratically elected President Zelaya? Micheletti’s interim government says the ouster was a constitutional transition carried out by the army and supported by the Supreme Court because Zelaya had illegally tried to organize a vote on changing presidential term limits.[2] (The same accusation of changing the presidential term limits is made against Obama by Rush.)

Limbaugh was also upset with immigration. He says, "[If Obama] succeeds with amnesty, for example, and all the illegal aliens are instantly made citizens –” he’ll be too important. Just like right now –” he’s too big to fail as far as the drive-bys are concerned; he’s too important to be replaced. No one else can lead the nation, they will say."

During a news conference recently, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was asked whether Obama supports Serrano’s House Joint Resolution No. 5, which, if passed, could lead the way for an Obama run at a third term. He answered, "I think the president is firmly in support of an amendment that would limit his time in the presidency to eight years if he’s given that awesome responsibility by the American people."

Of course, we can’t expect Limbaugh to agree with such assertions now. He does not and wants to wait until 2016, or who knows even earlier, to find out the veracity of his own claims on Obama.

It appears that these Limbaugh Republicans are not the only ones now crying foul with President Obama. There are also guys like Dick Morris, ex-campaign manager for President Bill Clinton. Morris resigned from the Clinton campaign in late August of 1996. Since that fallout, he has been a very harsh critic of the Clintons. With his new book, Catastrophe, co-written with his wife Eileen McGann, it is obvious that he is mad as hell not only with his former boss but also with Obama, Pelosi, and the Washington Democrats whom he accuses of systematically sabotaging American values, the American economy and American way of life.[3]

Dick and Eileen think that (1) Obama and his radical policies will destroy American healthcare system so that no one gets adequate care; (2) Obama designed his bank rescue plan to pave the way for nationalization of the banks and socialization of the economy; (3) Obama firmly believes in government control of our major industries; (4) Obama plans to reshape the political landscape to keep the left in power for decades by cooking the census, enfranchising illegal immigrants, muzzling talk radio, and coercing hardworking Americans into big labor unions against their will. If these are not enough reasons to rally the lost Republican souls together to unseat Obama in the next election, consider the following cockamamie theories of Dick and Eileen: Obama is attacking those who fight terrorism while letting the terrorists go free; Obama gives aid to Hamas while Shariah law threatens to take over America; Obama has all but repealed the Declaration of Independence and put Americans under a worldwide, European-dominated financial regulatory system.

Well, there is a name for such a behavior. It is called paranoia. Unfortunately, with names like Dick, Bill and Rush and a red skin, many red-necked Americans are willing to listen and buy their stuffs. Thus, it is not difficult to understand why, like Rush in the 1990s, Dick is currently in the best seller list with his latest fear-mongering discoveries about America!

Interestingly, Limbaugh was a drug addict and was charged with a felony for doctor-shopping in a bid to secure multiple prescriptions for powerful painkillers like OxyContin in a Florida court in 2006. [4] He is also a Bible-thumping Christian who divorced his wife.[5] You may also recall that Morris resigned from the Clinton campaign in late August of 1996 after reports surfaced that he had been involved with a prostitute. You may also remember that radio talk show host Bill Bennett, the conservative political pundit and former Secretary of Education, has gambling addiction.[6] Let’s also not forget the other Bill of the O’Reilley Factor, who was charged with sexual harassment of his producer Andrea Mackris.[7] It is no accident that the views of these addicts and perverts are so similar. They are war-mongering fundamentalist bigots who have a holier than thou notion of themselves and yet are unmindful of the so-called New Testament verse: "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." (James 2:10)

With co-author Eileen McGann, Dick says: "IT’S TIME TO TAKE BACK OUR COUNTRY." To them, "This is no time for apathy or alienation or hopelessness. It’s a time for action."

With guys like these molding Americans’ opinion, America, for too long, has been known around the world more for its hypocrisy than anything just and fair in foreign policy making. Probably, Americans need to take back America from the clutches of these hypocritical conservative talk-show hosts before it is too late.

Notes:

[1]. "The devil came here yesterday," Chavez said, referring to Bush, who addressed the world body during its annual meeting Tuesday. "And it smells of sulfur still today." http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/09/20/chavez.un/index.html

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